Universities in the USA and UK make up the top 10 institutions in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) once again heading the list.
Harvard University took second place this year knocking the University of Cambridge down to third position followed by University College London and Imperial College London in fourth and fifth.
University of Oxford came sixth marking a record year for UK universities with six institutions ranking in the global top 20. University of Edinburgh, 17th, and Kings College London, 19th, both make a debut a appearance.
“The UK invests below the OECD average in higher education, so it is unrealistic to expect its universities to continue to punch above their weight indefinitely”
UK universities also have a strong reputation among employers with Oxford and Cambridge taking pole position on the list of universities producing the best graduates according 27,000 employers worldwide. The London School of Economics also makes the top five.
However, John O’Leary, member of the QS Global Academic Advisory Board warns that the UK is struggling to keep up with the US when it comes to research.
“The UK invests below the OECD average in higher education, so it is unrealistic to expect its universities to continue to punch above their weight indefinitely,” said O’Leary.
“The current success of leading institutions shows how vital it is that the government matches the investments being made by other countries in order to maintain their world-class status.”
The University of Cambridge is the only UK institution to make the global top 30 for research citations. In contrast, the US boasts 31 of the top 50 most-cited institutions, led by Caltech, Harvard and Stanford.
Only three non-US or UK institutions appear in the top 20, the highest ranked ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) finished 12th, the University of Toronto ranked 17th and Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne appears 19th.
The National University Singapore, listed 24th, was the highest ranking Asian institution. An additional 10 Asian universities appear in the top 50 including Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (34th), Kyoto University and Seoul National University (tied for 35th), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (39th).
The rankings, published annually, are determined according to six criteria: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty student ratio, citations per faculty, international students and international faculty. The 2013 rankings drew on more than 90,000 survey responses, with more than 3,000 universities being considered.
